Nov 2 2010
The Wall Street Journal: "General Mills has a corporate culture that consistently encourages workers to stay active and healthy. … It's part of the consumer-products company's long-established wellness program, which General Mills says has helped it keep increases in health-care costs in the single digits, way below the national average. Now, a growing number of companies are finding that they need to follow that example. But providing an in-house gym, weight-loss programs or smoking-cessation classes isn't enough to get workers to convert to a healthier lifestyle; most people don't use them, and health-care costs keep rising. So companies are bumping up the pressure and incentives for workers to participate -- and the penalties if they don't. … Another growing trend: on-site clinics with doctors and nurses who monitor medical conditions" (Mincer, 10/31).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
|